As other posters have pointed out, Apple's cloud concept is going to be practically pointless. And, with the faster 4G speeds promised, the Verizon service itself will be pointless.

I was going to switch 3 iPhones from ATT to Verizon. But, I was waiting until the iPhone 5 came out. I can say with absolute certainty that Verizon won't get my business with this new plan. And, I am not going to rush to switch. I'm not playing that game. They either want my business or they don't.

I'm not sure that I'll even upgrade my iPhone now.

This whole smart phone game is getting on my nerves. If I keep getting squeezed, I'm just going to give up my smart phone all together.

Phone makers better step up and use some of their political prowess to make things change, or their business model is going to come crumbling down on them.

I now use about 43 GB per month at home with my DSL connection. I'll be moving to an RV in less than a year. I work with web sites and marketing in addition to streaming radio and Netflix movies. I suppose I could spend less time on the internet for music and movies but still I'll need about 30 GB no matter what. Owning a MiFi is what I intend to do.

With cell phone charges getting exorbitant it seems time for all of us to create our own peer to peer internet, where everybody can use an open WiFi network connected by all cell phones left open to incoming signals. Each phone could just be a hub for forwarding the signal. This could also be done with home WiFi modems. Each phone would operate more like a radio that forwards signals to the next phone.

With ipv6 everybody will be able to have their unique address for their phones and with built in GPS, software could be used to find your phone.

Wouldn't it be great if a cell phone maker essentially created their own cell network that worked only with phones? You wouldn't need to be attached to a telephone company. Just use your phone for the price you paid for it and no further charges. It would be its own cell tower and all the other phones would be too. This would only work in big cities at first where the density of the phones would make it possible. Eventually everybody would have one and the range for everybody would increase.

Apple is doing this with their new messaging service between iPhones but I don't know how the information will be transferred. Will it be via WiFi, the telephone cell airwaves, or just direct line of sight? It would be awesome to be free of telephone services. Of course everybody would need to have more battery life or portable power packs for when the phone was away from a power source for very long. Everybody would definitely need such things because we'd all leave our phones switched on so that everybody could remain connected.

This would also kill conventional telephone companies because we all could have internet via the same network.

Would you spend $1000 for a phone that gave you unlimited calling and internet for that one time fee? I would spend more if I knew it would be useful for many years.

What do you think? This isn't a new idea but it isn't talked about much. With these outrageous prices it is time we all talked about it and let Apple know it's time to create such a device.

I'm damn glad I don't live in the States. I have unlimited data on my 3G WiFi router (unlocked) for $25. And In the States we're about to lose another player in the field? No, thanks! Sprint could definitely use this latest change in their argument against the pending duopoly.

huh? i live in the states and on my virgin mobile phone is $25/month for unlimited data/texting, and 300 minutes. the deals are still there if you are willing to look

but you see what happens, the only truly affordable plans are on the underdog networks (sprint + other minor regional competitors, and t-mobile for the moment)

if the us government allows the verizon at&t duopoly and sprint doesn't survive or is allowed to be eaten up by vz or att, you will see prices go up possibly further.

however if data prices with att and vz are going to be this expensive, even if t-mobile merges with att a lot of people will switch to sprint and maybe even out the subscriber numbers a little more. maybe.

problem is, the effect is delayed due to those pesky 2 year contracts and because you don't see the higher prices until you switch plans.

I'm a firm believer in paying for what you use. But VZW's pricing makes no sense and has no tier for what is probably the more typical user. There needs to be something between $10 for 75MB and $30 for 2GB.

For example, I typically use about 120 MB a month, with occasional peaks to 300 MB. I guess I could get the $10 plan, which would be $20 most months, but sometimes as much as $40!

Here in China, I used to subscribe to China Unicom's US$14 for 300 MB plan, but downgraded it to the US$7 for 150 MB plan. Note that this amount also includes basic service and a number of voice minutes. Overage rates for both data and voice are very reasonable. And I'm free to tether, knowing that it just uses up my data allowance. The whole concept of usage-based data billing plus an extra charge for tethering makes absolutely no sense.

The U.S. definitely needs more competition, not less as will occur if the AT&T/T-Mobile USA merger is approved.

How did these wireless companies come up with these prices in the first place? Based on what? It seems they pulled a number out of the arse and said we'll see what we can get away with.

As other posters have pointed out, Apple's cloud concept is going to be practically pointless. And, with the faster 4G speeds promised, the Verizon service itself will be pointless.

I was going to switch 3 iPhones from ATT to Verizon. But, I was waiting until the iPhone 5 came out. I can say with absolute certainty that Verizon won't get my business with this new plan. And, I am not going to rush to switch. I'm not playing that game. They either want my business or they don't.

I'm not sure that I'll even upgrade my iPhone now.

This whole smart phone game is getting on my nerves. If I keep getting squeezed, I'm just going to give up my smart phone all together.

Phone makers better step up and use some of their political prowess to make things change, or their business model is going to come crumbling down on them.

I'd hate to give up my smart phone, but I will.

Good point, well taken. I think the phone manufacturers better use their clout or their products will be sitting on the shelves.

I'm damn glad I don't live in the States. I have unlimited data on my 3G WiFi router (unlocked) for $25. And In the States we're about to lose another player in the field? No, thanks! Sprint could definitely use this latest change in their argument against the pending duopoly.

Eh, I think you're comparing Apples to oranges. I just got back from Spain for two weeks. I had spend probably 10 hours researching how I was going to get my unlocked iPhone online when I was there. You see, apparently there's one constant in Spain when it comes to prepaid. They HATE giving you data.

The best plan I found was 3GB for a month for $35 from Carrefour. I went to the store and after dealing with a few CS people who were clearly unhappy to be dealing with me, I got my card. An hour later, after spending 45 minutes on the phone with Carrefour's support, they gave me my only option - FAX (FAX!) them a page with my passport, name, address in Spain and the SIM card's info, and within 7 days they would MAIL me a new SIM card that would work.

I consider myself very lucky to have been given a full refund back at the store after that.

Then I went to a Phone House and got the best plan they had - 100MB per day max cap, for 3e per day. The service worked OK, but there was almost ZERO service between the major citys. Not very impressive, considering how much Euros brag about their great cell reception.

None of the other mobile retailers I went to, that's Vodafone, Carrefour of course and Movistar, even SOLD a PAYG SIM that included data, not even a single MB of data.

The plan we really wanted in the Phone House was not from Yoigo, it was a 250MB per day plan from Vodafone. But they didn't have that SIM in the store, the guy said Vodafone stopped sending them those cards a few months ago. And there was another similar card, but it was ONLY for USB modems, not for mobiles.

So keep dreaming about how amazing Europe is compared to the USA when it comes to data for mobiles. My experience shows that all is not so perfect. Coverage outside cities (nil), price (same as the states) and predictability of retailers was very poor.

I find it interesting that this harsh pricing on smartphones is coming in right as Virgin Mobile is gaining traction with their very cheap unlimited data plans and Virgin Mobile enabler Sprint is finally starting to take advantage of the bandwidth it owns with better service and better plans of their own. If Verizon succeeds in holding this pricing and shifting the market in its direction it will chill smartphone use for sure and push US rates towards some of the highest in the world.

I find it interesting that this harsh pricing on smartphones is coming in right as Virgin Mobile is gaining traction with their very cheap unlimited data plans and Virgin Mobile enabler Sprint is finally starting to take advantage of the bandwidth it owns with better service and better plans of their own. If Verizon succeeds in holding this pricing and shifting the market in its direction it will chill smartphone use for sure and push US rates towards some of the highest in the world.

I agree... Our only hope is that:

Sprint will survive and grow. ( It is possible with this new Verizon pricing )

or

Sprint goes under and AT&T Buys T-Moble and the US gov decides to break up ( or regulate ) the resulting 2 carrier monopoly....

I also agree, I saw something that said exchange/business email was only going to be including in 5GB plan and above meaning I'm going to have to pay $50 just so I can sync my contacts, calendars, and email.
If you pay $20 more for tethering and it comes with 2GB more that's $10/GB (the standard overage), which means Verizon might as well be saying we choose how you get to use your data. They're make a lot more people happy, if they could use their data however they wanted and probably get extra money with overages anyways.

Yeah, somehow Verizon thinks it's reasonable to charge you extra if you use Exchange, even though it's just more data. They don't do anymore more than pass more packets along. Hilarious!

That's what grandfathered means, but that's not what Verizon is doing. When your contract expires you lose the unlimited data. Verified with Verizon on a new iPhone purchase on Saturday.

Grandfathered doesn't "mean" anything - it's a term people use to say what they want, but other people may use it differently. Verizon is grandfathering users into unlimited. But they can certainly decide to stop doing so, just as ATT can. It all depends on the numbers. If just a tiny number are abusing unlimited, maybe they'll keep doing it. But if they're being hurt by it, you know they'll cut it off.

At least ATT is making more money from those grandfathered users. Verizon, bizarrely, set up their pricing so that the 3GB is the same price as unlimited, removing any motivation for someone who uses 2.5GB and NEVER any more, to give up their unlimited. Very stupid pricing, if their goal is to get people off unlimited. It's like when municipalities set up a fasttoll system on a toll road but make it more expensive for drivers to use it than the slow lanes. Then everyone is surprised that there's only one fasttoll lane and there's still a big bottleneck on the road.

It doesn't take much of a discount to get users to switch plans, but there has to be SOME discount. Dummies.

I now use about 43 GB per month at home with my DSL connection. I'll be moving to an RV in less than a year. I work with web sites and marketing in addition to streaming radio and Netflix movies. I suppose I could spend less time on the internet for music and movies but still I'll need about 30 GB no matter what. Owning a MiFi is what I intend to do.

What do you think? This isn't a new idea but it isn't talked about much. With these outrageous prices it is time we all talked about it and let Apple know it's time to create such a device.

How selfish of you. You get to use everyone else's paid-for data every month, and you never put anything back into the community pot. Oh and for that setup, we get to be massively inconvenienced to change how the world works to no benefit of ours and all to you. Gee, selfish much?

Grandfathered doesn't "mean" anything - it's a term people use to say what they want, but other people may use it differently. Verizon is grandfathering users into unlimited. But they can certainly decide to stop doing so, just as ATT can. It all depends on the numbers. If just a tiny number are abusing unlimited, maybe they'll keep doing it. But if they're being hurt by it, you know they'll cut it off.

At least ATT is making more money from those grandfathered users. Verizon, bizarrely, set up their pricing so that the 3GB is the same price as unlimited, removing any motivation for someone who uses 2.5GB and NEVER any more, to give up their unlimited. Very stupid pricing, if their goal is to get people off unlimited. It's like when municipalities set up a fasttoll system on a toll road but make it more expensive for drivers to use it than the slow lanes. Then everyone is surprised that there's only one fasttoll lane and there's still a big bottleneck on the road.

It doesn't take much of a discount to get users to switch plans, but there has to be SOME discount. Dummies.

Verizon's unlimited plan cost the same as their new 2GB plan so it's not quite as good of a deal as you say, but I do agree that their pricing is very stupid indeed. Verizon also allows people to purchase the iPhone full price but they don't lower the cost of their plans which makes no sense.

How selfish of you. You get to use everyone else's paid-for data every month, and you never put anything back into the community pot. Oh and for that setup, we get to be massively inconvenienced to change how the world works to no benefit of ours and all to you. Gee, selfish much?

Every service I connect to from my home computer and modem earns money precisely because I connect to them. They sell advertising that pays for their services. Get it? I pay for Netflix.

My job is to create web sites and get people to visit them so that the businesses can earn money. I pay to connect to the internet. The businesses pay to put up their sites and run them. If I were taking your phone out of your hand and using it against your will then I suppose you would have a right to complain about me, but in my case you don't. If you don't utilize your service optimally then it's your fault not everybody else's.

Mobile phone companies hate people who maximize their usage and don't go over their limit. They want everybody to pay for the maximum and utilize the minimum of their services. .|.

My job is to create web sites and get people to visit them so that the businesses can earn money. I pay to connect to the internet. The businesses pay to put up their sites and run them. If I were taking your phone out of your hand and using it against your will then I suppose you would have a right to complain about me, but in my case you don't. If you don't utilize your service optimally then it's your fault not everybody else's.

Right, and you're happy to help others maximize their usage by using it yourself. Rather than encouraging these businesses to price more efficiently, you'd rather create a world where most people overpay, and then donate their surplus to people who are too cheap to pay for their true usage.

Right, and you're happy to help others maximize their usage by using it yourself. Rather than encouraging these businesses to price more efficiently, you'd rather create a world where most people overpay, and then donate their surplus to people who are too cheap to pay for their true usage.

It's clear to me that you must be insane. If people pay for something and use what they've paid for how is that wrong? Somehow you have it in your mind that they're taking something away from you.

Businesses will price services lower when people stop buying their services that are priced too high. It's simple but an insane person like you just can't grasp such a concept.

Right, and you're happy to help others maximize their usage by using it yourself. Rather than encouraging these businesses to price more efficiently, you'd rather create a world where most people overpay, and then donate their surplus to people who are too cheap to pay for their true usage.

I don't believe you understood the concept he presented. It doesn't involve leeching other people's services. Rather, the concept proposes to use our own hardware (smartphones) to create a virtual network accessible by anyone within range of anyone else that has access.

Kind of like infinite, daisy-chained tethering.

Your concern may be founded in that one person must be a source, and they need to be getting their data from somewhere. If their data is not unlimited, this system will not work. It's not terribly feasible, and that's why it takes a company to provide mobile data service, but a guy can dream, right?

I don't believe you understood the concept he presented. It doesn't involve leeching other people's services. Rather, the concept proposes to use our own hardware (smartphones) to create a virtual network accessible by anyone within range of anyone else that has access.

Kind of like infinite, daisy-chained tethering.

Your concern may be founded in that one person must be a source, and they need to be getting their data from somewhere. If their data is not unlimited, this system will not work. It's not terribly feasible, and that's why it takes a company to provide mobile data service, but a guy can dream, right?

Yeah I understand, and yeah, that's my objection. He has a great idea, that lots of very poor places are doing or trying to do to get internet access for everyone. But his idea is that because he uses 40GB per month, everyone else should let him use some sliver of their internet connection, since they pay for way more than they use.

Ah, I remember not too long ago when many of the posters above were waiting with baited breath for the Verizon iPhone to debut. There would be a mass exodus to Verizon from the evil clutches of that dastardly at&t they said. Meanwhile I asked my three children who have smartphones (2 iPhones, 1 Droid) how they fare with their data plans with at&t. None of them come anywhere near 2GB per month. So it really is about bandwidth hogs who saturate their 3G connections 24/7/365. Sprint won't be far behind either. Deal with it.

bated |ˈbātid|
adjective (in phrase with bated breath)
in great suspense; very anxiously or excitedly : he waited for a reply to his offer with bated breath.

ORIGIN late 16th cent.: from the past participle of obsolete bate [restrain,] from abate.

USAGE The spelling : baited breath instead of bated breath is a common mistake that, in addition to perpetuating a cliché, evokes a distasteful image. Before using the expression bated breath, think of the verb : abate, as in : the winds abated, not fish bait.

If Apple remains married to this idea for long there will be quite a bit of downside on their stock price methinks. Certainly, I'm not going to join the ranks and will keep my Razr and anyone paying those prices will have to be daft!

Don't blame Apple. Apple/iPhone and Google/Android for that matter, have nothing to do with setting rates for any carrier. The carriers set the prices for all their plans.

"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." Douglas Adams

Yes, and it shouldn't be that way. In reality if you buy the phone outright you should be getting Virgin Mobile type rates from Verizon. Only way Apple will be able to get around this is selling an unlocked CDMA phone to use on pre-paid networks like Cricket and Virgin. A Sprint iPhone would be a move in the right direction as well.

Just my 'luck', Just ready to make the plunge to an iPhone in Aug., when my Verizon contract is up. Been using a basic flip phone for over a decade, recently mixed with an iPod Touch for web-on-the go. This Verizon scheme of exorbitant tiered rates, so clearly intended to milk the web crowd has changed my mind.

I love the idea on the forum that somehow Verizon OR AT&T or indeed any huge company would act benevolently toward their customers.

"Why can't they just do 10 bucks for a gig, 10 for every gig after that?"

Because they don't have to.

Of course I would love that plan. I use about 300-400mb a month, nowhere close to 2gb. I pay 30/month for the unlimited data, so I might as well keep paying it.

They absolutely know that if there was a plan for 1GB for $10/month, or hell even 500MB for $15/month, I would instantly change to it without a second thought and as fast as I possibly could.

That's why they don't do it. That 10-15 dollar spread, times a whole lot of customers like me (that aren't super users but actually have a smartphone for a reason) would mean lots of lost cash.

Likewise, you either pay for 250 texts, 500 texts or unlimited texts. My mom sends about 18 texts a month. But she gets 250.

The tiered data is also no different from the older argument about talk time. Remember when you actually had to worry about minutes? Remember when Rollover Minutes was the greatest thing since the two-button mouse?

Now I have to pay $60/month, plus $10/line for 700 shared minutes. All 3 of my phones combined used 158 minutes last month.

But there's no 400 shared minutes/month for $35, now is there?

If cell phone companies in the US were about fairness, I'd be paying about $75 a month for 400 shared minutes, a gig of data each for my two smart phones and unlimited texts.

But that ain't how it works.

This message is far too long. Good thing I got the unlimited keystroke plan with my internet service...

At least ATT is making more money from those grandfathered users. Verizon, bizarrely, set up their pricing so that the 3GB is the same price as unlimited, removing any motivation for someone who uses 2.5GB and NEVER any more, to give up their unlimited. Very stupid pricing, if their goal is to get people off unlimited.

You. Don't. Get. To. Choose.

You have a contract for unlimited data for 2 years from the start of your plan, then your contract runs out, and they switch you. That's it.